Information on fraudulent messages

The most common type of fraudulent messaging (often referred to as 'phishing') is the junk e-mail arriving to your e-mail address. The message may refer to a cash award, or give you various warnings and threats if you don't agree to do what the message prompts you to do. The only purpose of such messaging is to trick the recipient into sharing their personal e-banking identifiers, credit card numbers or personal identity codes.

The perpetrators who send the messages have not hesitated to use the name the Finnish Tax Administration – Verohallinto – as the "sender". Some message texts have referred to a tax refund that could supposedly be paid to you.

Other fraudulent messages might arrive in the form of SMS or text messages. We never send people text messages to ask about their personal details. One text message type the Finnish Tax Administration uses is a reminder text. However, we never ask anyone to send us their e-banking identifiers, bank account information or personal identity codes.

If a fraudulent message arrives in your Inbox

We recommend that you delete the message immediately. You should not click any of the hyperlinks.

If you have given the sender your credit card information, you must correct the mistake by phoning your bank or the Blocking Service (In Finland 020 333 or +358 20 333).

How to recognize an authentic message?

The Tax Administration never sends taxpayers messages asking for credit card or bank information. The Tax Administration does not need such information.

Similarly, the Tax Administration never sends e-mail that would contain a notice of assessment or any related tax information.

This means that any message that purports containing a tax decision cannot be real.

Similarly, the Tax Administration never sends e-mail that would contain a request to send us a bank account number.

If you take a closer look, you may notice problems in the layout or language of the message.

Many fraudulent messages contain a hyperlink and a prompt text saying you should click it in order to visit a website.

How to recognize an e-service of the Tax Administration?

All our e-services that display tax amounts or involve taxpayers' input of tax data and amounts are set up over a secure online connection. Look into the following features:

You cannot access an e-Service without signing in securely. If you are an individual taxpayer, you sign in with your e-banking identifiers or microchip identity card. If you represent a corporate taxpayer, you sign in with a Katso ID and Password.

Fraudulent sites have no secure sign-in features, or they may ask you to enter your credit card number or PayPal password to sign in.

The Tax Administration's electronically provided services set up a secure online connection between the user and the provider. You see the letters 'https' on the URL line on the top of your browser window. You also see a padlock symbol.